Printing apparatus



Sept. 26, 1944.

A. HQFRICHTER PRINTING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 9, 1943 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. 14 115 //0 Sept. 26, 1944. A. HOFRICHTER 2,359,037

PRINTING APPARATUS Filed Jan: 9, 1943 s sheets-sheet 2,

' Y INVENTOR. 1 1:9- 2. 141mm! Hone/0475C Arm/W575 P 1944- A. HOFRICHTER 2,359,037

PRINTING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 9, 194's 3 Sheets-Sheet s A TTOE/VE/S Patented Sept. 26, 1944 UNITED STATES (PATENT OFFICE PRINTING APPARATUS Allen Hofrichter, Sufiern, N. Y.

Application January 9, 1943, Serial No. 471,816

'13 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in the art of printing and has particular reference to an apparatus to be employed in letter press printing, and more especially in the preparation of the work preliminary to the actual printing operations.

The customary procedure heretofore followed in preparing a printing job involves locking up the type and cuts in a printing chase, and thereafter taking an impression on a sheet to determine from such impression whether the faces of the type and cuts in the chase are level or at the same height. The printer accomplishes this operation by observing the reverse'or under side of the impression sheet with the same held in an inclined position, and where any areas are noted in which'the type or cut impressions are lighter than on other parts of the sheet, such areas are encircled with pencil markings. A sheet of thin paper of known thickness, such as tissue used for tracing, is then laid over the reverse side of the impression sheet so that the markings denoting said areas show through said tissue and are then cut therefrom. These cut-outs are now pasted onto the back of the impression sheet' so as to register with and cover the areas indicated thereon, thereby increasing the thickness of said sheet at such areas. This sheet, which is known in the art as a patc sheet, is now marked, or may have been previously marked at the time of taking the impression, to indicate adjacent its corners the position thereof relative to the chase, and is then placed on the cylinder of the printing press beneath the usual removable cylinder covering and in such position thereon that when a subsequent impression is taken on any other sheet the sheet in the press will have exactly the same position relative to the chase as it did when the first impression was taken. With the patch sheet thus mounted on the cylinder, the latter will, in effect, be thickened or increased in size to the extent of the increase in thickness of said areas having the cut-out sections or patches pasted thereto, and this increase will compensate for the inequalities in the height of the type and cuts in the chase. Another impression is now taken on a second sheet and the results observed, and if the printing is still uneven, the above described operation is repeated until a satisfactory result is obtained, whereupon the printing job may then be proceeded with and completed. Most often, the areas marked out on the impression sheet are very irregular in outline and the operations of cutting out these areas from the thin sheet of tissue, regardless of their regularity .or lack thereof, and of pasting them in proper position on the impress-ion sheet to form the socalled patch sheet, are tedious .and consume much time and labor.

The present invention is designed to overcome the above difliculty .by providing an improved apparatus of simple and practical construction by means of which the thickness of a patch sheet may be varied in predetermined areas thereof by severing from a thin sheet of material of known thickness sections thereof corresponding in .outline to said areas and, concomitantly with said operation, superimposing said severed sections upon and aflixing them to said patch sheet in registration with said areas.

The inventive idea involved is capable of receiving a variety of mechanical expressions one of which, for purposes of illustration, is shown in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a Vertical longitudinal section through the apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the line 33 are of greater height than the front standards I I.

Comiecting these standards are the rearwardly and upwardly inclined supporting beams 13 which project beyond the rear standards l2, as shown in Fig. 1. Said beams carry a lower stationary support l4 having the same inclination as that of the beams and said support is adapted to have fed thereover a strip 15 of suitable paper from which a patch'sheet of desired size is formed in a manner to appear in the course of the .description. Said strip is positioned between front and rear sets of closely contacting rollers 18,11 and l8, 19 which, by frictional contact and pressure thereon, maintain the strip in engagement with the support I4, the rollers l1 and I9 carrying ratchets 20 and 2|, respectively, engaged by pawls 22 and 23 to prevent clockwise rotationo'f the roller 1 l and counter-clockwise turning of the roller 19. With this arrangement, the portion of the strip between the sets of rollers which is ultimately to form the pat-ch sheet is held in a taut condition on the support l4 and after said sheet has been finished, the pawl 23 may be dis engaged from itsratchet 2| so that the strip may be pulled forwardly and the completed sheet then severed from the remainder of the strip for use on the cylinder of a printing press in the usual manner hereinbefore mentioned.

A secondary frame, generally indicated by the numeral 24, is pivotally connected at 25 to the upper ends of the rear standards l2 and is provided on its front end with a handle 26 to enable the frame to be swung vertically on its pivot, such as may be done upon completion of an ordinary impression sheet, for purposes of inspection. It is here noted that the roller |6 is carried by the movable frame 24 while the roller I1 is attached to the stationary or main frame. At the rear of the frame 24 there is supported a feed roller 21 having a ratchet 26 thereon and wound upon this roller is a continuous length of thin material 29 which may be tissue paper or the like preferably having its under surface adhesively coated and from which, in accordance with the invention, sections are to be severed and superimposed upon the sheet I to increase the thickness thereof in predetermined areas. The paper is fed forwardly from the roller 21 and beneath the guide roll 36 and from thence forwardly and downwardly above the sheet l5 in slightly spaced relation thereto. At the forward end of the frame 24, said paper is passed under a guide roll 3| and then upwardly around a takeup roller 32 carried by the front of the frame 24. "The shaft of said roller 32 is provided with a crank handle 33 and also carries a ratchet 34 engaged by a pawl 35. The teeth of the ratchets 28 and 34 are oppositely disposed and when the pawl of the former is released therefrom the handle 33 may be turned, as a preliminary step in the operation of the apparatus, to pull from the roller 21 a length of the paper 29 suflicient to extend over the sheet l5. The ratchet 28 is then locked by its pawl and the handle 33 is turned slightly until the paper 29 is drawn taut to insure against its accidental contact with the sheet I5, the pawl 35 then acting to maintain said paper in such condition.

The frame 24 further includes an upper support 36 parallel with the stationary support l4 and adapted to have mounted thereon a sheet 31 upon which a. trial type impression has been made from the type and.- cuts held in the printing press. After such impression has been taken, and the corners of the sheet marked at 38 to denote its position relative to the type bed in the usual manner, the sheet is placed face downward upon the support 36 and the printer then observes the back of the sheet to determine if there are any areas where the printing has been uneven due to variations in the level or height of the type and cuts. If such areas appear, the sheet 31 is, according to the present invention, now secured in position upon the support 36 by means of clamps conventionally shown at 39 and .means whereby as. the areas 4| are outlined by the movements of a pencil or other marker, such movements are transmitted to a mechanism which will sever from the sheet of material 29 sections or patches 42 (Fig. 5) corresponding in outline to the areas 4| being marked on the sheet 31, and which will, concomitantly with said severing operation, superimpose said cut-out sections upon the sheet I5 and cause them to adhere thereto when the under surface of said sheet 29 is adhesively coated, either before being wound on the roller 21 or by a conventional fountain brush or roller applicator (not shown) which may be positioned adjacent the roll 36 or in place thereof.

In carrying out the above purposes, there is provided a transmission mechanism universally movable with respect to the plane of the support 36. This mechanism comprises a frame consisting of end bars 43 disposed outside the longitudinal edges of the support 36 and perpendicularly thereto. Pairs of guide rollers 44,

45 carried by the bars 43 engage the upper and.

lower surfaces, respectively, of the support 36 along the longitudinal edges thereof to guide the movements of the frame therealong. Connecting the upper ends of the bars 43 is a pair of rods 46 and similar rods 41 join the lower ends of said bars. A tracer device is mounted for movements back and forth along the rods 46 above the support 36, and said device is in the form of a carriage consisting of opposed plates 48 joined by the upper and lower cross rods 49 and 56 and each having revolvable thereon the guide rollers 5| and 52, respectively, that en- 7 gage with the rods 46 so that the carriage will be guided in its movements along said rods. Pivoted at 53 (Fig. 3) in the lower portion of the carriage is a lever 54 one end of which carries a pencil or other marker 55 which is shown in its operative position in the drawings. A spring 56 connects the lever 54 to the carriage so that when the pencil 55 is not being held by the printer in its operative position, the spring will contract and swing the pencil upwardly in the direction of the arrow and, in so doing, the lever 54 will be swung about its pivot for a purpose which will presently appear. With the pencil 55 held in its operative position, the printer proceeds to outline the areas 4| on the sheet 31 and as the transmission frame, in its entirety, moves along the support 36 and the tracer device moves relatively and along the rods 46 under the guidance of the printer, the outlines of the areas 4| are marked on the sheet 31, and said movements are transmitted to a lower carriage, .generally indicated at 51, situated below the support 36 and movable along the rods 41. In order totransmit the movements of said tracer device to the carriage 51, two flexible elements 58 and 59 are employed. The element 58 is connected at 66 to a plate 48 of the tracer device and is then successively passed around upper and lower pul leys 6| and 62 on the left hand bars 43, and from thence across the frame and around the pulley 63 at the lower end of the right hand bars 43 to the carriage 51 where the element is attached at 64. The other element 59 is secured to the lever 54 at 65 and then extended around a small pulley 66.from whence it passes successively around the pulleys 61 and 68 on the right hand bars 43 and the pulley 69 on the left hand bars 43, and finally is attached to one end of a lever 16 pivoted to the carriage 51. With'this arrangement, it will be apparent that said carriage will follow the movementsof the tracer device as the latter travels back and forth on the rods 46, and also that when the spring 56 elevates the pencil 55 upon release of the latter, the lever. 10 will also swing upwardly about its are supported on the rods 12 and 13, the upper and lower rollers 14 and 15 engaging with the rods 41 to guide the carriage in its movements.

A bracket 16 (Fig. 4) is formed on said carriage and supports a set screw ll engageable with the lever for adjustment purposes, and a spring 18 on said bracket bears against one end of the lever to hold it in contact with said screw. The other end of the lever 10 supports a paper cutting instrumentality, preferablyin the form of a heated stylus 19, to which one end of a flexible electric conductor 80 is attached the other end of said conductor being wound on a spring reel 8| (Fig, 1) secured to the underside of the support 36, said conductor being supplied with current from a suitable source (not shown). When adjusted to the proper position by the set screw 11 and supplied with current, the pointed lower end of the stylus will be sufiiciently close to or in contact with the sheet of paper 29 so that as the carriage 51. moves in response to the movements of the secondary frame 43 and the tracer device, said stylus will sever from different portions of said sheet the sections or patches 42 corresponding in outline to the areas t i. Means are further provided for superimposing said sections 42 upon the sheet as the sections are being severed, and for exerting sufficient pressure upon said sections to cause the adhesively coated under surface thereof to adhere to said sheet, thereby increasing the thickness of the latter in predetermined areas. Said means is shown in the form of a circular brush 82 the head 83 of which is made of electrically insulated material and is mounted directly on the shank of the stylus 19. The brush encircles the lower end of the stylus and its flexible bristles are of such length that when the stylus is properly adjusted, they will engage and exert such pressure upon the sheet 29 and the section 42 being severed that the latter will be pressed down upon the sheet 15 and will adhere thereto. After all the areas 4| have been outlined with the tracer device and the corresponding sections 42 have been cut from the What is claimed is:

1. In a printing apparatus, a support for an impression sheet upon which outlined areas are defined, a stylus for severing sections from a second sheet of material, means to move said stylus relative to the last named sheet in such manner that said sections will be of a configuration similar in outline to the areas on said impression sheet, and means to exert pressure upon said sections as they are severed to remove the same from the plane of said second sheet of material and to continue such pressure while superimposing them upon a patch sheet inpositions thereon corresponding to those of the areas on said impression sheet.

2. In a printing apparatus, upper and lower supports, one adapted to have placed thereon an impression sheet and the other a patch sheet, means to support a thin sheet of material above said patch sheet in spaced relation thereto, movable means for outlining areas on said impression sheet, and means including a stylus responsive to the movements of "said movable means for severing from said thin sheet sections thereof corresponding in outline to said areas and adapted to be afiixed to said patch sheet.

3. In a printing apparatus, upperand lower supports, one adapted to have placed thereon an impression sheet and the other a patch sheet, means to support a thin sheet of material above said patch sheet in spaced relation thereto, movable means for outlining predetermined areas on said impression sheet, means including a stylus responsive to the movements of said movable means for severing from said thin sheet sections thereof corresponding in'outline to said areas, and means operating concomitantly with said stylus for superimposing said severed sections upon said patch sheet.

4. In a printing apparatus, a framework, 2. lower support carried thereby and on which a patch sheet is adapted to be mounted, a second ary frame carried by said framework, an upper support forming a part of said secondary frame and on which an impression sheet is adapted to be mounted, means on said secondary frame for maintaining a thin sheet of material inslightly spaced relation to said patch sheet means movsheet 29 and pasted upon the sheet E5, the latter a.

may be then withdrawn from the apparatus as a patch sheet for application to the cylinder of the printing press in the customary manner preparatory to taking another impression. As said sheet is being withdrawn, it passes between the rollers I6, I! and the latter exert pressure upon the sections 42 to smooth them out and cause them to adhere more securely to said sheet. While the completed patch sheet is being withdrawn, another length of paper is drawn into position on the support l4 and the length of paper 29 from which the sections 42 have been removed may be wound upon the takeup roller 32 so as to draw into position another length of said paper for the next operation of the apparatus.

There may be times when it is desired to increase the thickness of the sheet I5 by superimposing additional sections 42 of larger or smaller size upon the sections first attached to said sheet. In this event, it is only necessary, at the conclusion of the superimposing operation above described, to wind up upon the roller 32 the length 29 from which the first sections 42 have been severed so as to position a fresh length 29 above the sheet l5, whereupon said operation may be repeated.

able over said upper support to outline prede- -termined areas on said impression sheet, and means responsive to the movements of said movable means to sever from said thin sheet sections thereof corresponding in outline to the areas on said impression sheet and to superimpose said severed sections upon said patch sheet.

5. In a printing apparatus, a framework, a lower support carried thereby and on which a patch sheet is adapted to be mounted, a secondary frame carried by said framework, an upper support forming a part of said secondary frame and on which an impression sheet is adapted to be mounted, means on said secondary frame for maintaining a thin sheet of material in slightly spaced relation to said patch sheet, means movable over said upper support to outline predetermined areas on said impression sheet, and means including a stylus and a pressure device bearing upon said thin sheet and responsive to the movements of said movable means for severing from said thin sheet sections thereof corresponding in outline to the areas on said impression sheet and for superimposing said severed sections upon said patch sheet.

6. In a printing apparatus, a framework, a lower support carried thereby and on which a patch sheet is adapted to be mounted, a secondary frame carried by said framework, an upper support forming a part of said secondary frame and on whichan impression sheet is adapted to be mounted, tensioning means on said secondary frame for maintainingin a taut condition, a thin sheet of material above and inslightly spaced relation to said patch sheet, means movable over said upper support to outline predetermined areas on said impression sheet, and means responsive to the movements of said movable means to sever from said thin sheet sections thereof corresponding in outline to the areas on said impression sheet and to superimpose said severed sections upon said patch sheet,

7. In a printing apparatus, a framework, a lower support carried thereby and on which a patch sheet is adapted to be mounted, a secondary frame carried by said framework, an upper support forming a part of said secondary'frame and on which an impression sheet is adapted to be mounted, means on said secondary frame for maintaining a thin sheet of material in slightly spaced relation to said patch sheet, a transmission mechanism including a frame movably carried by said upper support, a marker on the latter frame for outlining predetermined areas on said impression sheet, means to mount said marker for movements with and relative to the last named frame, and means also supported by said last named frame and responsive to the movements thereof and of said marker for sev ering from said thin sheet sections thereof corresponding in outline to the areas on said impression sheet and for superimposing said severed sections upon said patch sheet.

8. In a printing apparatus, a framework, a lower support carried thereby and on which. a patch sheet is adapted to be mounted, a secondary frame carried by said framework, an upper support forming a part of said secondary frame and on which an impression sheet is adapted to be mounted, means on said secondary frame for maintaining a thin sheet of material in slightly spaced relation to said patch sheet, a transmission mechanism including a frame movably carried by: said upper-support, a marker on the latter frame for outlining predetermined areas on said impression sheet, means to mount said marker for movements with and relative to the last named frame, and means including a stylus and a pressure device also supported by and'movable with said last named frame and responsive to the movements of the latter frame corresponding in outline to those of the areas defined on said impression sheet, and means movable with said cutting implement for exerting pressure upon said sections, as they are being severed, to superimpose them upon a patch sheet.

10. In a printing apparatus, a support for an impression sheet upon which outlined areas are to be defined, a cutting implement for severing from a second sheet of materialsections thereof corresponding in outline to those of the areas defined on said impression sheet, and means supported by said cutting implement and engageable with said second sheet and the sections being severed therefrom to exert pressure upon said sections during the severing operation so as to superimpose them upon a patch sheet.

1 1. In a printing apparatus, a support for an impression sheet upon which outlined areas are to be defined, a stylus for severing from a second sheet of material sections thereof corresponding in outline to those areas defined on said impression sheet, and an element carried by said stylus for exerting a yielding pressure upon said sections as they are being severed to superimpose them upon a patch sheet.

12. In a printing apparatus, a support for an impression sheet upon which outlined areas are to be defined, a cutting implement for severing from a second sheet of material sections thereof corresponding in outline to those of the areas defined on said impression sheet, and a brush carried by said cutting implement for exerting pressure upon said sections to transfer them, as

they are in the process of being severed, from sections for exerting pressure thereon while they are being severed to superiinpose the same upon a patch" sheet.

ALLEN HOFRICHTER. 

